Rahul Gandhi emerges as future Indian PM

The West Australian

Wednesday, 12 August 2009 2:51PM

India's political spotlight has fallen on Rahul Gandhi, star campaigner of the ruling Congress and touted as a future prime minister, after the party scored its biggest election win in nearly two decades.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he would ask Rahul, torchbearer of the powerful Nehru-Gandi political dynasty, to serve in the cabinet, a move seen by analysts as a potential stepping stone to the premiership.

Gandhi refused to be drawn on the invitation after the election results Saturday showed the Congress just short of an overall majority.

He said in televised remarks that he saw his role as working to open up India's political system - long a preserve of families and people with influence - to its vast young population.

"My job is to change the politics of the country... and unleash the energy of the youngsters," said the 38-year-old Gandhi, whose handsome, dimpled faced had beamed from election posters across the country.

But exuberant supporters shouted for him to be named prime minister right away and showered him with petals in his constituency of Amethi, long a family bastion, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Analysts said the party's decisive victory and being in the cabinet could pave the way for Rahul to replace Singh, 76, who recently underwent heart bypass surgery, midway through the government's five-year term.

"This is the smoothest possible transition for Rahul," said Subhash Agrawal, editor of India Focus, a political risk publication.

"Singh becomes PM for a notional period of say two years, then resigns on health grounds and hands over to Rahul."

Rahul, head of Congress' youth wing, insisted during the campaign he wanted to get more young people politically involved.

With 51 per cent of the 1.1 billion population under 25 and two-thirds under 35, the youth vote represents a huge constituency for the centre-left secular party.

Singh has fuelled the speculation that Rahul could be prime minister by saying he has "all the qualities a good PM should have".

Rahul scored a personal triumph in doubling Congress's tally in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state where the party had been considered moribund, but he campaigned heavily and rejected seat-sharing arrangements.

The only shadow on Rahul's success was the sweeping victory of his cousin Varun, regarded as the family black sheep for joining the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, in another Uttar Pradesh constituency.

Varun was dubbed the "messiah of hate" by Indian media for strident anti-Muslim comments during the campaign that were broadcast on television.

Analysts said Rahul might be given the portfolio for rural development - allowing him to focus on India's impoverished masses who have been Congress's traditional support base.

Since India's independence from Britain in 1947, power in Congress has passed from his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first premier, to his grandmother Indira Gandhi and later to his father Rajiv.

It now rests with Rahul's Italian-born mother, Sonia, party president and seen as India's most influential politician. Many Congress supporters cannot imagine the party without a Gandhi at the helm. Sonia has carefully managed her son's career, making sure he has been given time to carry out his stated aim of learning politics "brick by brick".

A few years ago, Rahul showed little inclination to fill the boots of his illustrious forebears. But now he has shed his halting speaking style and is sounding far more seasoned and at ease on the campaign hustings.

In two years, Rahul will be 40 - the same age his father was when he became premier following the slaying of his grandmother Indira by Sikh separatists. Rajiv too was assassinated - by a Sri Lankan Tamil separatist suicide bomber.

In 2004, the party announced Rahul would enter politics, even though his sister Priyanka, 37, is considered much more of a natural politician.

"It's quite possible (that he will be prime minister) provided he works hard toward it, provided he goes through the grind and provided that he deserves it," Priyanka said in a TV interview earlier this month. But critics decry the need for continuation of the dynasty, calling it at odds with India's emerging economic superpower status.

"What is questionable is the assumption - shared by his family, his close associates and apparently by the man himself - that the top job in party and government is his for the asking," said historian Ramachandra Guha recently.